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Personally, I don’t see Mon Valley even fielding teams this year if BB raises their season fees. 

Not sure what teams but SHAHA rents ice at rostraver currently.

7 minutes ago, bb2j3z said:

Yes that is correct.   Esmark is not Tier 1 at Printscape Arena.   We were told by BB that they were doing 2 practices a week this season at the rink.  Esmark games would only be allowed if it was extra ice we did not purchase.   

Wait. 2 practices per team (like 16 slots) or 2 slots TOTAL a week at Printscape for Esmark?

Just totally guessing here but I’m gonna say that Rebellion will try to field PAHL teams, AHF teams, AGHF teams, and THF teams. Which makes the Esmark splitting ice there even more confusing considering they are in the THF

19 minutes ago, aaaahockey said:

Does the bottom left text also mean they are going to try to field a faux AAA team at all levels also? 

Certainly how I read it as well…. ?

15 minutes ago, twoboys said:

This isn’t easy to answer for any team.  It all depends on how much they ask for on top of the fees.  And teams within an organization can be different.  

Fair enough. I’m sure it’s around that number and if I really wanted to know I could email someone at Esmark. 

8 minutes ago, aaaahockey said:

 Are you including tuition at North Catholic and Excel in there?  

Haha, no I wasn’t. Was more looking at like peewee age. PPE is like $6500? Vengeance is like $4000? Just wondering where Esmark falls in line. 

If it’s one practice a week at PIA and one at Printscape or like one week all at PIA and the next all at Printscape I could absolutely see a few Preds/Shaha/Lebo kids making the switch.

Just curious, how much are Esmark season fees? Closer to PPE price or Vengeance price?

Is this the start of a Pittsburgh area hockey rink civil war? What are we doing here exactly? 

35 minutes ago, Flavio said:

My job actually entails a lot of study around traffic flow and wait times etc.  

How convenient!

IMO this is a ridiculous argument. People will make the drive wherever they have to for what they are looking for in a program. Some people value location more than others. Some people value ice time, or coaching, or like when the practice days/times are, or even status more than anything. There are a handful of folks who are driving to Cleveland 3-4 times a week so their kid can make Barons practices. There’s a family who is flying down to FLORIDA so their kid can play in games for the Alliance.

There is a family at Pens who lives in Morgantown. There’s a family at Rebellion who lives in Renfrew. I live in the south hills and drove to Alpha for a couple of years. Never met a hockey family that wouldn’t make a drive to play.
Ever been stuck in a PAHL division with Johnstown or Erie or State College and have to drive out there for one game? The shit we do for our kids is hilarious.

A funny somewhat related true story. I used to work in Southpointe before Covid and I worked with a guy who lived in Leechburg. Yes, he would drive from Leechburg to Southpointe every single day. Taking 28/376/79 every day for his 8:30-5 job. 

Just saw on Instagram that AHF has added a team from Arizona to their league, so their footprint is definitely growing rapidly. 

Yeah….we’re just gonna go ahead and shut this thread down.

The Esmark splitting ice rumor aside, I still think Printscpae needs to announce the second sheet asap. 

3 hours ago, stickboy said:

Haha, right on!

And Esmark 10u-14u have never really been relevant in AAA   

 

 

 

Esmark has never had 10u teams.

52 minutes ago, bb2j3z said:

The second sheet is indeed happening....  The part I was questioning was Esmark also renting ice at Printscape when they had plenty of ice at PIA.   

They really should announce it and promote it prior to tryout announcements. Like within the next couple of weeks.

22 minutes ago, LGP13 said:

I've never been involved, so excuse my ignorance. Is the excel school and the prep school mandatory to play PPE? Like you can't just try out for the PPE program, make it, and attend the scheduled program functions? How do they force you to do the excel program and Prep school if you aren't interested in them or don't have the money/means to? It seems pretty crazy to me that if a kid was talented enough to go to tryouts and make the team that he would be turned away because him and his family couldn't afford to do Excel/Prep in addition to the lofty PPE tuition? 

It’s “not” mandatory, but it is. They don’t care about the talented kid that can’t afford it. That kid just ends up at Esmark/Vengeance.

Haven’t tried the Glice brand but have heard good things. We have a 18x24 area in the basement of Snipers Edge tiles and they are great for stickhandling and shooting.
Synthetic ice is definitely an investment. Our setup with the panels and shooting tarp cost around $5k.

Skating on them (and all synthetic ice) takes some getting used to, but once you get the hang of it, it can be a very useful training aid. We purchased during the beginning of Covid lockdown and my boys have skated and/or shot on them pretty much every day so it’s second nature to them now. When teammates come over to use them for the first time is can be a bit of a struggle to adjust.

The “cheaper brands” like snipers edge, hockeyshot, skate anytime, poly glide all produce a lot of shavings so be aware of that. Can Ice (the pro series not the new smaller panels) is the only one marketed that says it doesn’t produce shavings.

They also dull the blades very quickly (less than 2hrs of use) so investing in a Sparx machine is almost necessary to get the most of out the panels.

1 hour ago, aaaahockey said:

I saw one that said "My kid is Elite.  Pittsburgh Penguins Elite".   On A first year squirt dad's car. Spewed my coffee. 

Sounds like exact thing that little Jaxton’s mom would make on her cricut machine

1 hour ago, RoyalTraveller said:

Hornets had a rule in place that allowed a max of 3 out of town kids on any team. 

This should be a USA hockey rule for Tier 1 National Bound teams in my opinion. 

Does anyone know any player that started with PPE in 2012 and has since played exclusively with them until aging out? There has to be a few right?

All it will take is an organization to offer full ice “AAA” mites and the numbers at the 66ers will diminish. I wonder if there’s a company that could facilitate that here. Oh wait…..there is. AHF offers it. 

18 minutes ago, Lucky17 said:

Isn’t that just their AAA league though?

Not according to their website. Its for all divisions. They play a lot more regular season games than PAHL as well, and judging from the schedule it looks like most regular season games are 2 games in one day. 

11 minutes ago, Lucky17 said:

One solution for that would be to bring multiple teams together in one rink and have each team play 2 games.  Example, Altoona hosts 1 week and draws in Erie, Preds, Morgantown, Badgers and Youngstown.  Each team plays 2 games at Altoona that count toward the PAHL schedule.  The following week, the Preds could host 5 other teams from the division.  In divisions where there are teams from all over, it could significantly cut down on travel.  Would require some serious planning from PAHL, but I’ve seen it done elsewhere with big geographical separation between clubs.

Ironically enough - that seems to be exactly what the AHF does for the mandatory showcase weekends that are included in their season....

@Spear and Magic Helmet I agree that PAHL splits it up too much, however (looking at 14U this year) the top A major team is an 84.92 MHR and the weakest A minor team is a 71.85 MHR. You wouldn't want those two teams ever playing each other. Wouldn't be fun for either group. So therefore splitting it up the way its now does actually make sense. The geographical locations of the teams does come into play though you're right. We have been in a PAHL division with Erie/Altoona/State College. Sucks making those drives for one game.

I find it REALLY interesting that both of the organizations that BB has recently acquired (Huskies and Mon Valley) advertise that they are a significantly cheaper option than other clubs. I wonder if that changes now. I'm sure it will, but by how much?

We have about 4-6 weeks until most orgs will announce their tryout dates for next season.  Will be interesting to see where the BB teams and rinks fall into place within this time frame.